The Next ‘LEGO Movie’ Spinoff Lost Its Director

The LEGO Movie and its assorted sequels and spinoffs seemed to be riding high just a few months ago. The LEGO Movie was a surprise blockbuster, The LEGO Batman Movie grossed more in theaters than several “serious” Batman movies, and a host of additional movies were planned, including The LEGO Movie Sequel and The Billion Brick Race. But then The LEGO Ninjago Movie flopped at the box office (it earned less than a quarter of The LEGO Movie’s domestic grosses) and now The Billion Brick Race is in need of a new director.

Flickering Myth quotes the man who was the project’s director, The Book of Life’s Jorge R. Guttierez, who posted on Facebook that he had left the project:

I would like to publicly and from the bottom of my heart thank everyone I worked with at Briksburg, LEGO and WAG. These last 9 months were a rollercoaster of thrills to say the least. I met so many amazing new people and learned a ton from all these incredible artists, directors, writers, editors, producers and execs. I leave a better filmmaker and it’s because of you all. May our paths cross again. Gracias mis amigos. And as I toasted on my first day there, ‘May we slip n slide on the blood of our enemies!!!’

This isn’t the first creative upheaval on the film either. The movie was originally pitched by Iron Man 3 writer Drew Pearce, who was supposed to collaborate on the project with Jason Segel. They both left, and then Guttierez came on board. Given that we still don’t even have an official synopsis for the film, and that the film will need to find a third creator to figure out how to make the concept work, and that the LEGO franchise is starting to show signs of age, it does make you wonder whether this project will ever see the light of day.